Education, Women & Children News

1,000 More Public Daycare Centers to be Built by 2018

01/21/2015SMG2896

The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) will build 1,000 more public daycare centers by 2018. For the past three years, 296 centers have been opened through a cost-efficient model, increasing the number of public daycare centers to 934 (as of the end of 2014), and the number is expected to grow to some 2,000.

The proportion of public daycare centers will increase about 28%, which is two times higher than the current proportion of 13.7%, and the quota will rise from 65,000 to 100,000. The number of public daycare centers will be expanded annually on a gradual basis (150 centers in 2015; 300 centers in 2016; 300 centers in 2017; and 250 centers in 2018).

To this aim, the SMG has come out with four major guidelines: ① installing equally by region and building centered on regions with high demand for childcare ② minimizing management pressure on private daycare centers in consideration of their co-existence with public daycare centers ③ overcoming financial pressure by focusing on cost-efficient projects ④ strengthening the selection criteria for daycare teachers and directors to heighten the quality of childcare.

In addition to expanding a more appropriate number of daycare centers, a ‘public management system for daycare teachers’ will be established to raise the quality of childcare by supporting the efforts to secure a pool of competent teachers, after recruiting and offering the related training in the second half of this year. The selection criteria for directors will be reinforced to a minimum of seven years of work experience. These measures will be overseen by the ‘Childcare Quality Support Center’, which will be built within the Seoul Foundation of Women and Family, this May.

Furthermore, the SMG will discover and proceed with a new type of cost-efficient model this year by utilizing idle spaces in urban parks, after benchmarking the Northern European model that encourages kids to become familiar with the woods and nature.

The eight models of public daycare center by type are as follows: ① expanding public daycare centers within an apartment complex ② purchasing and converting home and private daycare centers ③ installing within public institutions, purchasing general buildings or constructing on public land ④ reinforcing joint alliances between private and public daycare centers ⑤ expanding public-workplace mixed daycare centers ⑥ utilizing idle classrooms in schools ⑦ utilizing idle spaces in urban parks ⑧ converting to after school daycare centers.

< Expansion Plan by Year >

Total

2015

2016

2017

2018

1,000centers

150centers

300centers

300centers

250centers

630billion won

94.5billion won

189billion won

189billion won

157.5billion won

< Expansion Methods >

① Expanding public daycare centers within an apartment complex. – Making it mandatory to build public daycare centers inside a new residential district / converting existing daycare centers in administration buildings.

② Purchasing and converting home and private daycare centers.

③ Installing within public institutions, purchasing general buildings or constructing on public land.

④ Reinforcing joint alliances between private and public daycare centers.